Dennis On: "Oh Me of Little Faith" James 5

^{James 5}

¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

 

^{Ok, let's get right to it.  While this teaching, so plainly stated and seemingly unambiguous is not directly that of Jesus, it is by James and includes Jesus name as the talisman that brings results.  One can proof text themselves all over the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to find what one thinks this REALLY means, or how it REALLY is to be understood, or how one REALLY is to understand it, but I am taking each questionable teaching in it's given context without all the apologetics that get hunted down to explain why this teaching will work if properly understood.}

 

^{I think it goes without saying the misery and heartache this simple teaching has caused sincere Bible reading Christians all over the planet and in all ages since it was uttered is without parallel.  All humans get sick and sickness leads to death at times.  We will all die for lack of breath at some point and as we have seen in past postings, God evidently knows and has planned the hour of our deaths anyway.  So I suppose I even question why we would ask for healing since if it is time, it is time.  If it is not time, then I will get better anyway right?}

 

 ^{Sometimes I think one author in the Bible is oblivious to what other authors say and can't match their teachings into one coherent teaching.  I guess that's why we proof-text until we find the answer we need for ourselves and can say, "the Bible tells me so."}

 

^{As well, I know how tempting it is to blast WCG or any church that teaches divine healing, anointing and prayer as per James 5:14-16.  I know the horror stories. But we need to back up a bit and realize it is the BIBLE , the APOSTLES and the EARLY CHURCH that teaches this.  We are just reading it as the inspired word of God, so to speak, and trying to figure out how to apply it and what it means.  Does it mean get anointed, trust God, avoid medical care because it is either or and cannot be both, or what?} 

 

^{Does our standing with God depend on our faith in such matters?  What does this scripture expect Christians to really do and not do?  And since we KNOW in our heart of hearts that the implication of this is IF you do A the B will happen.  When it doesn't, then we agonize over the reasons listed in an earlier posting as to why God did not answer our prayer.  No matter...it is OUR fault and never the fault of the Deity.  He wanted to help but we just didn't hold our mouths right when we asked or something so the answer is no.}  

 

^{Also, I am pleased for those who can feel or know that God healed them of this or that.  A minister distracted me once with a job offer that caused me to miss a flight from LA to Boise Idaho. The plane I missed was hit by a fighter Jet and all died.  Luck?  "Intervention?"  I don't know, but it sure was a cruel joke to save me to go through the rest of the WCG minister experience.} 

 

 ^{Anyone who gets better after asking for healing is not going to dare not to credit the prayer of faith and such with the healing.  We are happy for you.  You can't prove to us you did not luck out or get better anyway.  After all, most don't die anyway each time they get "sick."   I was often asked to anoint for colds and such which of course I did but didn't want to.  I never got anointed for a common cold.  You know the cycle.  I would only get anointed if I felt my sickness could really get out of hand and after all, I was young and did want to live!  I'm still here.} 

 

^{The faithful tend to die in such times and stinkers live forever...}

 

 ^{I had a ministerial assistant once, who announced to the Church during a sermonette that he would either anoint you for sickness OR visit you in the hospital but not both.  I made him take it back and told him he'd be doing both if he was going to work with me. If not, we could arrange for him to work elsewhere.  I always did both and sent many a person to his doc, ER or Hospital for help that was readily available.  I guess my Presbyterian background saved me from some of the more profoundly stupid mistakes others made having grown up in a much smaller theological box as they must have.}  

 

^{However, my point is and what I want to point out is not "how could we be so stupid as to believe Armstrong on this issue," etc...but recognize that it is a very bad teaching of the Bible itself.  It leaves little to interpretation really even though many denominations teach it every way from being a nice idea and quaint to absolute Bible truth that God will judge your faith over.  But it is in the Book.  It is not a confusing statement.  It seems to say what it says and mean what it means.  James does not tell us if that is all we do or just a part of doing all else we can do.}   

 

^{So, to me, and having seen the hurt, fear and shock this teaching not being so as stated has caused, I vote this a bad teaching.  By its fruits I believe we can know it...}

 

Dennis C. Diehl

DenniscDiehl@aol.com

 

Death By God: Thoughts On Faith vs Medicine

A couple of years ago this article was on God Discussion.  It is as timely today as ever since people continue to die in PCG and LCG because of it's rejection of doctors (unless of course you are the fearless leader and then no expense is spared.)

Years ago, my brother almost died because of a ruptured appendix. This was not the fault of the local physicians. It was the fault of the Worldwide Church of God, which at that time was headed by Herbert W. Armstrong. Because of the church's stronghold on my parents' intellectual reasoning, they and the minister prayed over my sick brother for months, putting stupid little "anointing cloths" and oil described in the bible on him. He became sicker and sicker, wasting away to nothing except for a grossly bloated stomach. He was so weak he could not walk.   He suffered tremendously.

 Fortunately, my parents allowed reason, love and compassion to prevail and took him to the emergency room, despite the instructions of the church. They did so in the nick of time. The appendix had ruptured and my brother hovered near death. My parents felt guilty about this for the rest of their lives. In fact, my mother manifested appendicitis in her late 50s.Death by God